Sunday, July 28, 2013

CUSTODY

CHARI SENT TO POLICE CUSTODY
Kahthmandu, 29 July: Dinesh Adhikari Chari was remandedt by The
Kathmandu District Court Sunday to five-day po9lice custory.
He was arrested during the weekend to investigate possible involvement in
several criminal activities.
He’s closely liked with UML whih closed down Dhading from where he hails.
The strike was withdrawn on local protests Sunday.
He was arrested with a pistol.
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HIGH SECURITY FOR ELECTIONS ORDERED

Kathmandu, 29 July: With just 114 days left until the Constituent Assembly
election day, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) is yet to unveil its
much-awaited poll security
plan, AMkit Adhikary writes in The Kathmandu Post..
A directive calling on all security
agencies to start preparations for the upcoming elections has already been
issued by the ministry. Officials say the election security
plan is still in its final stage. MoHA Joint-secretary and spokesperson Shankar
Prasad Koirala said the concerned MoHA departments have already been directed
to finalise the security
plan at the earliest.
“The government is confident about holding the election in a free and fair
manner,” said Koirala, adding that the ministry is in frequent consultations
with security
forces concerning their homework for providing poll security
in various phases.
The MoHA’s security
plan is an elaborate outline of the overall security
system that makes a work division between the Nepal Police (NP) and the Armed
Police Force (APF). The work division between the NP and the APF will focus on
a number of parameters that include security
in polling stations, periphery of polling stations and booth as well as
deployment of patrol units, among others. The document will also determine security
-sensitivity of various districts based on their vulnerability to violence from
anti-election forces. In the 2008 CA elections, out of the total 9,824 polling
stations, 1,635 were categorised as highly sensitive and 3,556 as sensitive.
The polling stations in the districts, including Bardiya, Dhanusa, Siraha,
Saptari, Sarlahi, Tanahun, Baglung, Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Kathmandu
were categorised as highly sensitive.
The Home Ministry, meanwhile, has formed a central level elections cell
comprising representatives from the ministry, NP, APF and the Election Commission
(EC). The cell makes a weekly assessment of security
situations at districts as reported by the respective security
agencies. “This is a bid to stay in loop with the security
circumstances at the districts,” Koirala said.
Police spokesperson DIG Nawa Raj Silwal said preparations are underway in
line with the ministry directives. According to him, around 54,000
personnel—around 80 percent of the NP’s existing 67,181 strength—will be
deployed during the election. The remaining 20 percent personnel will remain at
various police units for regular duties. An additional force of 22,000 will be
deployed also from the APF.
The security
agencies have proposed hiring at least 30,000 Myadi police (temporary police
personnel) for election security
as the number of personnel to be deployed from the existing force will be
insufficient.
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DALIT COMMISSION CHARGES POLITICAL PROTECTION
Kathmandu, 29 July: The National Dalit
Commission (NDC), at a press meet here on Sunday, said that the Belbari
incident was being politicised, as a result of which, the Commission refused to
release an investigation report until at least Tuesday, Weena Pun writes in The
Kathmandu Post..
A four-member NDC team had left for Belbari, Morang, on Wednesday where a
mob attacked 30-year-old Maya Sarki (erroneously reported to be 23 years old
earlier) and a local journalist Manoj Bishwokarma two days earlier. The attack
was in response to a complaint of attempted rape Sarki filed with the local
police against a local resident, Jeevan Bhetwal.
In an interview with the Post, Member Secretary of the Commission Bhuwan
Sunar accused Bimalendra Nidhi, the Central Committee member of the Nepali
Congress, of meddling with the investigations.
“Nidhi has been siding with Bhetwal and saying that he isn’t the man who
tried to rape Sarki. Finding out the truth and serving justice is the task of
the police and the local administration, both of which are sleeping on their
jobs,” said Sunar.
Sunar’s claim follows a statement from the Nepali Congress, the only major
party which has issued a press statement on the Belbari incident, calling on
the government for fair investigations and action against the guilty. Sunar
said while “some people in the NC were drumming up” support for Bhetwal, other
parties were painfully quiet on the issue. “What we are scared of is that
eventually the local intellectuals will decide the best for themselves and the
parties they belong to, and will force reconciliation, just like they did with
the Rautahat incident,” he said. Sunar was the fourth member of a probe team
formed by the government to investigate the Rautahat incident where a non- Dalit
community attacked a Dalit
community on June 7 after a Dalit
couple tried to get married at a local temple.
Nidhi, who was in Belbari on Friday, however, denied the accusations
levelled against him, saying both he and his party are very much on the side of
Sarki and Bishworkarma. “I was in Belbari with the Congress’s Dalit
wing. We all want the guilty to be punished after a fair investigation into the
case,” he said.
In order to investigate any political intervention, a team, led by Sushila
Shripali, the NDC chairperson, left for Belbari on Sunday.
Secretary General of the Dalit NGO
Federation Jas Bahadur Bishwokarma, who is leaving for Belbari to attend the
local-level Dalit
Civil Society programme, said he would look into the ‘political intervention’
matter. The programme intends to warn locals against further victimisation of
Sarki, said Bishwokarma.

Victims file police complaintBIRATNAGAR

Victims of Monday’s assault in Belbari VDC-3 in Morang have lodged a complaint
against the guilty on three different charges. Police said the complaint names
seven people as the main accused and that they have been charged with public
offence, caste-based discrimination and rape. Jeevan Bhetwal, Amit Bhetwal,
Sabita Bhetwal, Chandrakala Bhetwal, Ambika Bhetwal and Kamala Bhetwal are in
custody, while the seventh accused, Kabindra Prasain, is at large.
Two local journalists and a technician of the local Radio Betana were also
named as culprits, police said. Journalists Bhojraj Basnet and Narendra Basnet,
affiliated with the local Samyantra weekly and Radio Betana and the technician
have been accused of filming the incident and uploading photos of the victims
in the Internet. Maya Sarki and Manoj Bishwokarma were assaulted and paraded
with soot smeared on their faces and shoe garlands around their necks in
Belbari last week.